Securing the Future With More U.S.-Taiwan Exchange Programs
Posted on Wednesday, December 7, 2016
by Project2049Institute
(Source: Flickr/Photo Phiend
–American and Taiwanese flags at the Chinatown gate in Washington, DC)
By: Sebra Yen
Since the severing of
official diplomatic ties between the United States and the Republic of China (Taiwan)
in 1979, U.S. policy towards Taiwan has stayed relatively consistent throughout
the past six administrations by adhering to the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and President
Reagan's “Six Assurances.” Although the TRA
continues commercial, cultural, and public exchanges under a de facto relationship, significant gaps
remain. Much more can be done to strengthen the partnership between the U.S.
and Taiwan.
The world has increasingly
become more interconnected. However, Taiwan continues to be pushed out of the international
community. Recently, Taiwan was excluded from the International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO), the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol),
and a U.N.-affiliated meeting in New York on rare diseases. The United States
should consider deepening its exchanges with Taiwan. Public diplomacy efforts
are inextricably linked with American national security. As such, the U.S.
should place greater emphasis on its people-to-people exchanges with Taiwan.
At a time when the
People's Republic of China (PRC) exhibits increasingly assertive behavior in
the South China Sea and East China Sea, the U.S. and its Asia-Pacific allies
should highlight the positive role Taiwan plays in the regional architecture.
U.S. strategy toward the region has taken a multifaceted approach that seeks to
strengthen cooperation with like-minded nations to address shared challenges. In
addition to commercial engagement, expanding people-to-people ties are essential
for fostering goodwill and unity with our partners and allies.
In the absence of
diplomatic relations, Taiwan has received diminished time and attention in
Washington. Over the past ten years, the White House has not viewed it as a
priority to support Taiwan and advance the unofficial bilateral relationship.
This has affected the way everyday Americans and Taiwanese have come to view
each other. According to survey results reported by the Chicago Council on
Global Affairs in 2014, only 28 percent of Americans would support sending U.S.
troops to Taiwan in the event that the PRC invaded the island.[1] In sharp
contrast, a 2016 poll
in Taiwan indicated that over 70 percent of Taiwanese people believe that America
would come to Taiwan’s rescue in the event of a Chinese invasion. It can be
interpreted that—in addition to having a case of ‘war fatigue’ from 13 years of
on-going conflict in the Middle East—this perception gap may be the natural result
of many Americans having limited understanding of the TRA and the political
complexity of cross-Strait relations.
Following the recent Trump-Tsai
phone call, the misinformed American media further demonstrated a lack of concern and
understanding regarding the nuances surrounding U.S.-Taiwan and U.S.-China
relations. More exchanges, not only on the governmental level but also on the educational
level, will allow for more Americans to understand Taiwan and its people better.
Currently, the United States is struggling to establish a proactive
international education policy and failing to meet its goal of 1 million Americans studying abroad by 2017. New and creative exchanges with Taiwan will boost
U.S. foreign policy and security goals, and ultimately garner more public
support on both sides of the relationship for stronger U.S.-Taiwan cooperation.
Current Public Exchange Programs
Despite the fact that the
U.S. and Taiwan both have visa waiver programs that contribute to tourism on both sides—which may see a record high of over 1 million visitors this year—these types of exchanges are mainly
short and business-driven. Long-term exchanges that seek to deepen
people-to-people relations must be pursued as well. On the U.S. side,
government-sponsored public exchange initiatives that have a Taiwan component include
a variety of programs funded by the U.S. Department of State (International
Visitor Leadership Program, Fulbright, Critical Language Scholarship, National
Security Language Initiative for Youth, Benjamin A. Gilman International
Scholarship, etc.) and Boren awards for international study. The U.S.
Department of Education also has 118 universities that offer the Foreign
Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS) to
study abroad. Language exchange programs funded by nongovernmental organizations
include the Blakemore and Freeman Foundations.
On the Taiwan side, the Ministry
of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) provide generous scholarship opportunities for foreign nationals seeking language learning,
degree programs, or research (Huayu Enrichment Scholarship, Taiwan Scholarship,
and Taiwan Fellowship, respectively.) The Taiwan government also sponsors the
Ambassador Summer Scholarship Program for the Taiwan-U.S. Alliance, known as TUSA, which is a non-profit organization that focuses
on building international friendships on the student-to-student level. In 2014,
MOFA launched an international youth leadership program called Mosaic Taiwan, which is committed to better informing future American leaders
through a three-week program filled with workshops and seminars in Taiwan. Finally,
a unique initiative is the Taiwan Tech Trek program,
which recruits young people of Taiwanese ancestry for an eight-week summer
internship or research program, allowing Taiwanese-Americans to learn about
Taiwan and its well-known tech industries. These programs ultimately seek to promote
and improve U.S.-Taiwan relations and counter China efforts to stop Taiwan from
participating in the community of nations.
Challenges With Current Programs
The U.S.-Taiwan pursuit to
seek partnerships through educational and cultural exchange programs is laudable.
There are, however, significant challenges with U.S. programs, particularly
with the International Leadership Visitor Program (IVLP), that inhibit more
meaningful exchange. IVLP is a three-week tailored individual or group program
sponsored by the State Department that brings mid-career professionals and
emerging foreign leaders to the United States. Former presidents Ma Ying-jeou
and Chen Shui-bian are both alumni of this program. These leaders are nominated
by U.S. embassies overseas, and in this case the de facto embassy known as the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT),
for meetings and opportunities to engage with Americans on global thematic
issues. It is through collaboration with National Programming Agencies (NPA) that
these projects are implemented. Due to fact that visits by Taiwanese officials
in the U.S. are seen as highly political by Beijing (former President Lee
Teng-hui’s visit to Cornell in 1995 sparked the Third Taiwan Strait Missile Crisis), it is
protocol that Taiwan government representatives are barred from entering the
Harry S. Truman Building of State Department, the White House, and the
Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Another caveat with the IVLP is the small
amount of funding available for Taiwan, in comparison to China. According to
State Department statistics, the FY2016 budget only allowed for 16 visitors
from Taiwan, while China had 112. The small amount of attention given to Taiwan
negatively impacts U.S.-Taiwan relations. More can be done to support exchanges
on the government and professional levels.
In the educational realm, there
are many U.S. exchange initiatives in place that give exposure to Taiwan. However,
the amount of students that go to Taiwan pale in comparison to the number of
those who go to the PRC. From statistics
provided for the 2013-14 year, the Institute for International Education (which
is an NPA) reported that 13,763 American students studied in the PRC,
while only a diminutive 801 went to Taiwan. Many American students are
naturally drawn to China’s rich cultural heritage, strategic importance, and
economic power (something which relates to future career prospects). However,
U.S. policies and officially-expressed attitudes toward Taiwan and the PRC
influence the choices made by young Americans as well. Many do not see value in
learning traditional Chinese characters and view Taiwan as only a subsidiary to
the PRC.
China Factor
The Chinese Communist
Party (CCP) has worked hard to win the hearts and minds of the American people
through its vigorous overseas propaganda efforts. Its Confucius Institutes are but one example. Confucius
Institutes, which are operated under the PRC Ministry of Education, are an extension
of the CCP. They have nearly 100 partnerships in the United States, with the stated
goal of promoting Chinese language and culture. These institutes provide
attractive financial packages to universities seeking Chinese language learning
resources.[2] However,
their programs engage in censorship and only allow for Party-approved rhetoric
and policies to be heard. In 2014, the University of Chicago ended its partnership with the Confucius Institute
due to concerns regarding censorship and limitations to academic freedom.
All American students
deserve the right to freely discuss issues like the Tiananmen Square Massacre, U.S.-PRC
relations, and the futures of Hong Kong, Tibet, and Taiwan. Yet, a Government
Accountability Organization (GAO) report
found that 12 overseas American universities in the PRC have challenges operating
in a restrictive environment. Internet censorship and self-censorship are
listed as two main problems. While Confucius Institutes offer generous funding
to American educational institutions, the continuation of these engagements
perpetuate the CCP’s authoritarian interests and leads to further
marginalization of Taiwan’s influence in the world. While education initiatives
between the U.S. and the PRC are important to the bilateral relationship, they
tend to impact and diminish opportunities for greater American understanding of
Taiwan. U.S. relations between the PRC and Taiwan should not be viewed in zero-sum
terms, but the reality is that they are.
Recommendations: Innovative Exchanges To Strengthen
U.S.-Taiwan People-to-People Relations
More innovative solutions
are needed to re-emphasize the importance of people-to-people exchanges with
Taiwan. The Taiwan Travel Act, proposed by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), calls for more exchange
between Taiwanese and American leaders at all levels. This could alleviate the
protocol challenges for Taiwanese visitors. Additionally, some bottom-up approaches
are needed to tackle the challenge of current institutional practices in place
that continue to discourage American students from pursuing Taiwan exchanges, including
the student-run Taiwan-America Student Conference (TASC). The
program, currently making plans for its fourth annual conference, was founded
on the premise that American students need to think critically about the
strategic and cultural value of Taiwan, and Taiwanese students need to think
globally and address where they fit within the international community. Every
year, students come together at TASC for dialogue and discussions on ways to confront
global issues facing their respective societies. These include issues such as environmental
sustainability and modern issues in education, among others. This is an excellent
model for more future citizen diplomacy exchanges, given the aforementioned
constraints.
(Source: Taiwan-America Student
Conference – Taiwanese and American students building mutual trust and
understanding through an exchange program)
Another recommendation is the
establishment of a foundation that seeks to strengthen U.S.-Taiwan educational
and cultural exchanges, much like the U.S.-China Strong Foundation. The
U.S.-China Strong Foundation is a nonprofit organization that seeks to
strengthen U.S.-China relations by investing in the next generation of leaders.
Its principal goals are to increase the number of American students in the PRC
and to strengthen Chinese language learning opportunities in the United States.
A U.S.-Taiwan Strong Foundation would be at the center of bilateral educational
exchanges. It could house programs modeled off of TASC, establishing chapters
in universities and high schools, and striving to increase the number of
American students in Taiwan and vice versa.
Beijing's influence
operations continue to drown out Taiwan’s voice in the United States. Taiwan's
democratic society is full of Chinese culture and increasingly diverse. The
island nation is a paradigm of pro-American progressive values. When it comes
to learning Mandarin, the PRC is far from the only option. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter stated
that a more inclusive security architecture is needed. Emphasizing Taiwan’s
role in Asia is smart policy. Advancing exchanges with Taiwan requires a willingness
to employ all the available tools, especially the establishment of a new
foundation dedicated to this mission. Doing so will add tremendous value to
U.S. foreign policy and national security outcomes in the years ahead.
Sebra Yen is an Intern at the Project 2049 Institute. He is currently a Master's candidate at The Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University, where he focuses on Taiwan and Asian politics and security.
Sebra Yen is an Intern at the Project 2049 Institute. He is currently a Master's candidate at The Elliott School of International Affairs at The George Washington University, where he focuses on Taiwan and Asian politics and security.
[1] Americans Affirm Ties to Allies in Asia. The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Pg. 2. October, 2014. <http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/sites/default/files/2014%20Chicago%20Council%20Survey%20-%20Asia%20Report.pdf>
[2] Soft Power in a Hard Place: China, Taiwan, Cross-Strait Relations and
U.S. Policy. Pg. 510. Fall, 2010.
<http://www.fpri.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/delisle.chinataiwan_01.pdf>
<http://www.fpri.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/delisle.chinataiwan_01.pdf>